Pan Laoping
01 · Lineage & Regional School
He attended a private school in Layi Xiazhai for two years, and later studied the Shuishu script under his grandfather Pan Shun and his father Pan Rongsheng, becoming thoroughly proficient in it. Within the regional tradition and school record of Shuishu Customs in Qiannanbuyizumiaozuzizhi, Guizhou: The distribution of the Shui script is centered on the Shui settlement areas of southern Guizhou, with the Libo and Sandu areas having the most concentrated transmission; wherever Shui villages are settled and village elders and sacrificial masters are established, there is a need to invite masters and consult the scrolls. In recent years, the state and county levels have established special collection and training institutions, organizing both the manuscripts scattered among the people and the rituals together. The origins of the Shui script cannot be verified in written records; they can only be inferred backward from the manuscripts and oral explanations circulating in the Shui settlement areas: the ancestors created this set of symbols in order to fix in writing the seasons, taboos and sacrificial words that were inconvenient to pass on by speech; since the character forms are too simple, essential meanings that could not be written down were entrusted to the masters who understood them. Writing and oral transmission complement each other, and this is precisely why the Shui script has been able to survive to the present.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
Male, of the Shui ethnic group, born in July 1937 in Libo County, Guizhou Province. At the age of twenty he began to preside independently over activities of Shuishu custom. In 2002 he was appointed a Shuishu researcher of Libo County. He took part in the county Shuishu office's work of deciphering the twenty-four symbols on fragments of Xia pottery and the ten mysterious symbols on an early Northern Song eight-petalled lotus ceramic bowl. In 2005 he was appointed a Shuishu expert of the Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture and joined the prefectural expert panel's manuscript review meetings and symposia on Shuishu custom. He participated in annotating and translating the fine works in the Libo collection, Le Jin Ji Ri Juan (Register of Days in Gilt) and Jin Yin Juan (Scroll of Gold and Silver), together with more than 160 other Shuishu manuscripts. He served as chief sacrificial priest or chief sacrificiant at nine Shuishu sacrificial ceremonies organized by the county Shuishu office, and was interviewed by China Central Television and Guizhou Television to introduce Shuishu custom. He attaches importance to transmission and, besides teaching his own son, has accepted ten disciples. Within the documented technical tradition of Shuishu Customs in Qiannanbuyizumiaozuzizhi, Guizhou: The 'Shui script' is an idiosyncratic proto-script created by the ancestors of the Shui people; in the Shui language it is called 'Le Sui'. It is a comprehensive record and reflection of Shui folk knowledge and folk culture, covering astronomy and calendrics, primitive beliefs, ethics and morality, production and daily life, and many other areas; it is mainly current in the Shui settlement areas of the southwest. The Shui script's system of written symbols is unique: it contains Chinese-style characters similar to oracle-bone and bronze inscriptions, numerous pictographic symbols, and also pictorial writing that expresses meaning in paragraphs. It has few characters (only several hundred) and a unique system of written symbols; its texts cannot express meaning independently, but must rely on the Shui masters who have a master-disciple lineage, that is, the 'sacrificial masters' (all male) who can read, understand and use the Shui script. Only when the relevant entries recorded in the Shui script are combined with the orally transmitted content and given interpretation do they take on meaning. The mode of transmission of the Shui script customs has produced the two major components of the Shui script: one part is the manuscripts compiled in the ancient proto-script of the Shui people; the other part is the oral instruction passed from master to disciple by Shui masters, used to make up for the great quantity of essential meanings, rituals and blessings that could not be recorded because of the script's incomplete development. The Shui script has a great variety of scroll volumes, mainly falling into two major categories: recitation scrolls and application scrolls. The application scrolls mainly include the 'Recitation Scroll', the 'Hours Scroll', the 'Twenty-Eight Lodges Scroll' and several dozen others; the recitation scrolls mainly include the 'Zhengqi Scroll', the 'Haizi Scroll' and more than ten others. The Shui script is praised as an encyclopedia of the Shui people. For funerals, sacrifices, weddings, construction, travel, divination and production, the Shui people have the Shui master look up a basis in the Shui script and then act strictly in accordance with its constraints; in this way the Shui script customs took shape. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Consulting the roll and the priest": Since the script cannot speak for itself, a priest reads the roll and adds inherited explanation. "Recitation rolls and application rolls": Recitation rolls serve daily reading while application rolls handle hours and the twenty-eight mansions. "Transmission by the ritual priest": What the script omits is passed orally from teacher to pupil, as in the cases of the two named priests. "The Sui script and its symbols": Among the few hundred symbols are archaic characters, pictographs and pictures that stand for whole clauses.
Consulting the roll and the priest
Since the script cannot speak for itself, a priest reads the roll and adds inherited explanation.
Recitation rolls and application rolls
Recitation rolls serve daily reading while application rolls handle hours and the twenty-eight mansions.
Transmission by the ritual priest
What the script omits is passed orally from teacher to pupil, as in the cases of the two named priests.
The Sui script and its symbols
Among the few hundred symbols are archaic characters, pictographs and pictures that stand for whole clauses.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
He is a national representative bearer of Shuishu Customs, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.
04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier
Historical origin
The origins of the Shui script cannot be verified in written records; they can only be inferred backward from the manuscripts and oral explanations circulating in the Shui settlement areas: the ancestors created this set of symbols in order to fix in writing the seasons, taboos and sacrificial words that were inconvenient to pass on by speech; since the character forms are too simple, essential meanings that could not be written down were entrusted to the masters who understood them. Writing and oral transmission complement each other, and this is precisely why the Shui script has been able to survive to the present.
05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage
National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.
| Bearer | Declared area | Roster code | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ou Haijin | Qiannanbuyizumiaozuzizhi, Guizhou | 03-1472 | Same declared area |
| Pan Laoping | Qiannanbuyizumiaozuzizhi, Guizhou | 03-1473 | This page |
| Yang Shengzhao | Qiannanbuyizumiaozuzizhi, Guizhou | — | Same declared area |
06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records and the associated project dossier, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。